That voice was all too familiar to him… but hadn’t she run away?
Lu Chenzhou stood up abruptly. The movement was so sudden that he knocked over the wooden stool behind him, sending it crashing to the floor with a harsh thud.
Ignoring the ache where he had hit himself, his face dark, he took swift strides toward the door and pulled it open!
Outside, moonbeams spilled across the ground, illuminating the yard bright as day while coating it in a hazy glow.
Jiang Wantang was dragging a heavy duffel bag. Sweat beaded across her forehead, and strands of stray hair clung wetly to her cheeks—she looked completely disheveled, as though she had just been dragged out of a lake.
That heartless woman was now standing, larger than life, right on his doorstep!
Lu Chenzhou’s pupils contracted sharply, his eyes turning bloodshot in an instant. For a second, he even wondered if days without sleep were causing him to hallucinate.
“Lu… Lu Chenzhou,” Jiang Wantang called out breathlessly, holding onto the doorframe for support.
That soft, delicate call shattered what little sanity remained in Lu Chenzhou’s mind!
He took a fierce step forward, his broad palm clamping down on her slender wrist like an iron vise. He squeezed so hard it felt as if he might snap her bone in two!
“You actually have the nerve to come back?!” Lu Chenzhou’s voice was terrifyingly low, laced with a tremor suppressed to its absolute limit.
Jiang Wantang gasped at the sharp pain, tears welling in her eyes.
“It hurts…”
Lu Chenzhou didn’t hear a word. The anger, grievance, and hatred of the past few days were stuck in his chest, suffocating him. He stared unblinkingly at her face, every word dripping with violent fury.
“What did you come back for?! Huh? Is city life not good enough for you? Why run back here—to laugh at me?!”
Before she could open her mouth, however, a second sentence slipped out, laying bare the truth of his inner torment—
“Are you… leaving again this time?”
His voice was barely a whisper, trembling with a pathetic, desperate fragility.
Jiang Wantang felt a sharp pang in her heart. No matter how harsh his tongue was, that searingly hot hand gripping her so tightly was shaking uncontrollably.
He was terrified she would run—terrified out of his mind.
Catching her breath, Jiang Wantang answered honestly.
“For now… I’m not leaving.”
“For now?!”
Those two words were like a spark dropped into a powder keg, triggering Lu Chenzhou all over again.
The look in his eyes shifted instantly, turning as savage as a wild beast ready to tear at her throat. Exerting a sudden pull, he dragged Jiang Wantang inside, slamming the heavy wooden door behind them and pinning her firmly against it!
In the dim room, his scorching, heavy breath fell against her face.
“Jiang Wantang, what do you take me for?! You think you can just come and go as you please? ‘For now’? Where else do you plan on going?! Which man’s arms are you trying to run to next?!”
He leaned in dangerously close, the raw, masculine scent of sweat and sawdust clinging to him and pressing down on her until she could hardly breathe.
Looking at the unhinged, enraged tyrant mere inches away, Jiang Wantang knew one thing clearly: if she didn’t smooth down this wild dog’s fur tonight and put him at ease, she wouldn’t be walking out of here alive.
Taking a deep breath, she patted the bag in her arms.
“Lu Chenzhou, let go of me first. I want to show you something.”
“I’m not letting go!” Lu Chenzhou snapped, his bloodshot eyes fixed on her, his voice harsh and raspy.
“If I let go, you’ll vanish into thin air again, won’t you? In your dreams, Jiang Wantang!”
“I’m not running!” Jiang Wantang lost her patience too. In one swift motion, she yanked the bag open and dumped its contents onto the rickety table beside them with a loud clatter—neat stacks of high-denomination bills, grain coupons, and an ancestral jade pendant wrapped carefully in red cloth!
The cash, coupons, and jade pendant gleamed under the faint moonlight.
Lu Chenzhou froze completely. His grip loosened without him realizing it as he stared at the items on the table, his eyes filled with confusion and shock. His mind went entirely blank.
“All of this is yours. I’m returning it to you,” Jiang Wantang said, looking straight into his eyes and enunciating every word with utter sincerity.
“I didn’t spend a single cent, I didn’t use a single coupon, and I kept the pendant completely safe. Lu Chenzhou, I made mistakes in the past. Coming back this time… I just wanted to give these back to you.”
Lu Chenzhou stood rooted to the spot, his face expressionless. After a long silence, a bitterly mocking sneer tugged at the corner of his mouth, though the bleakness in his eyes was heartbreaking.
“Return them to me? Heh… Playing me for a fool, Jiang Wantang? What, did that male educated youth in the city dump you? Decided life in the city wasn’t so great after all, so you ran back to use me as your backup plan again?”
Jiang Wantang bit her lip. The original host of this body had indeed raved about how cultured that male youth was in front of him every single day—no wonder he was overthinking things.
Enduring the throbbing pain in her wrist, she raised her voice to cut him off.
“There is no one else! Lu Chenzhou, stop assuming things! I didn’t even step foot inside my family’s house in the city! The very first train ticket I bought after getting off was the one back here!”
Lu Chenzhou shuddered. “Then why on earth did you come back?!”
Jiang Wantang looked up, meeting his bloodshot eyes—eyes filled with deep distrust and raw insecurity.
Screw it, I’m going all in!
If she wanted to save her own skin, she had to completely capture this wild dog’s heart!
Taking a small step forward, she pressed herself close against his chest. Her clear, resolute voice rang out like thunder in the pitch-black room.
“Because I suddenly realized that you are the only one who truly treats me well. Lu Chenzhou, I couldn’t let you go. I came back because of you—I want to build a life together with you.”
Silence fell over the room like death.
Lu Chenzhou went completely rigid. The hand that had been gripping her tightly lost all its strength. The cold violence in his eyes melted away in an instant, replaced by helpless confusion, utter shock, and… an overwhelming, crazy flutter in his heart that he barely dared to believe.